This is a red wine from natural wine pioneer Angiolino Maule of La Biancara, that I visited in 2018 (read here).
The soil in Gambellara is volcanic, and the vineyard was planted some 45 years ago. Organic agriculture with biodynamic principles. The grape composition is merlot 50%, tai rosso 40% and cabernet sauvignon 10%. They were picked by hand and spontaneously fermented, before a 2 to 3 weeks skin-maceration in big Slavonian oak.
Rosso Masieri 2018(La Biancara)
Cherry red, a bit developed towards rim. Dark and red fruits (blackcurrant, cherry), balsamic, beginning dried fruits. Juicy and yet concentrated, coffee, black olives, long.
Raw Wine brings a lot of activity also outside the fair itself. The day before Raw Wine I had the pleasure to attend a tasting at Café Josephine in the Amager neighborhood of København. It was organized by importer Christopher Melin of Melin Vin, who has an impressive portfolio. Here follow just a few highlights among the many magnificent wines and makers.
What could be more appropriate than to start, like I did last Saturday, at the table of two Danish brothers. Poppelvej is Uffe (winemaker) and Jens Deichman who run their estate in McLaren Vale, South Australia. From organically and biodynamically tended vineyards there and in the neighbouring Adelaide Hills, they produce wines in a natural way, with little or no use of sulphur. Poppelvej is the name of the street in Denmark where the brothers grew up. SommerNat Pét Nat from mourvèdre came in two vintages; the 2022 had a light peach colour and was very fresh, berry fruity and with herbs, while the 2021, with longer time in concrete eggs resulted a bit creamier and fatter in texture. Irresistible Impulse 2022 is a sauvignon blanc fermented in barrel and aged on lees for 10 months. It’s light and turbid in appearance, with notes of apples, passionfruit and herbs, good volume, textured, with crisp acidity, and with a slight bitterness in the finish. Lastly, Lille 2022 is based on the northern Italian grape teroldego. It’s quite dark with a blueish hint, dark and wild fruits, some spice and earth, with a light sparkle.
There were three Italian producers in the “garden party” of Café Josephine organised by Melin Vin (see previous post). Ampeleia is located in the Maremma region of Toscana, specifically in the medieval town Roccatederighi. Under manager Marco Tait they converted to organic and then biodynamic. Francesco Pascucci brought to this tasting a personal trebbiano-dominated blend (with ansonica and malvasia) simply called Bianco di Ampelaia 2022. It’s a light orange wine with a nice dried fruit character that adds complexity to the fresh fruits and orange peel aromas, and with a light structure in the mouth. He also presented a delicious blend in one litre bottle aptly called Unlitro 2022, easy to drink with fresh fruits, herbs and some balsamic. Alicante Nero 2017 is a wine with personality and depth; light and fresh red fruits, but underneath a layer of herbs and earth, and with a delicate structure. Their emblematic cabernet franc wines were offered at the fair itself, if I got it right.
There were two producers from Veneto. Alex Della Vecchia is winemaker for Costadilà in prosecco-land north of Venezia, but he also has his own project called Ombretta. Simone Ambrosini’s Indomiti is found in Colli Berici, Vicenza.
Alex Della Vecchia sources grapes from the family’s vineyards in two municipalities. For his Grinton label he also uses organic grapes from friends elsewhere in Italy. Here in the current vintage Alex showed an easy-drinking, delicate pinot bianco and a more structured, reddish skin-contact pinot grigio. A wine with a tremendous personality was a cabernet franc pét nat. (I must ask Alex about the name, so stay tuned!). The colour was light red with fine bubbles, an aroma of flowers, peel and a sweetish hint, and in the mouth it was tasty, concentrated with a raisiny touch. The wine had been made from passito (dried) grape juice, Alex informs.
Simone Ambrosini tells a story about him as a young man travelling to Australia, in search for harmony and the good things in life, more or less at random. Among other things he learns to love wine. Back in Italy he embarks on studies in enology and viticulture. After working with several wineries he decided to set up his own, with “a wallet full of ambition”, as he puts it. This was as recently as 2018. Now he rents old vineyards that he has restored in Colli Berici, his homeland. These vines, now brought back to life, are the “indomiti”, the indomitable ones that gave name to his project. Mistica was a lovely garganega 9 month skin-contact wine with good structure to the primary fruit. I tasted two wines with tai rosso. The varietal Osai2021 rosé shows delicate raspberry aromas, and in the mouth there is a cool acidity running through an otherwise round and fleshy body. Opplà 2021 is an uplifting pét nat rosé, where the tai rosso is accompanied by garganega, pinot bianco and sauvignon blanc. It’s light orange, aromas of white flowers, peach and a touch of orange peel, and in its lightness it’s full of flavours and with a refreshing integrated acidity.
Two German producers were present. It’s always a pleasure to taste the outstanding wines of Brand Bros of Bockenheim, Pfalz. These are made in full respect of the terroir, without additives, unfiltered, and always full of freshness and energy. This is the first time that I have met one of the brothers, Jonas Brand, who guided the guests through part of their portfolio.
I have had their charming Wilder Satz in many wine bars throughout Europe. The 2022 is different though, as 18 hours of skin-contact gives it more colour and structure than before. It also has good volume and appears quite grapey, and with lovely scents of citrus (clementine), flowers and some balsamic. Jonas brought two magnificent magnums, a non vintage Riesling (with that name) and Monastery 2016. The latter was light yellow in colour, with concentrated aromas of yellow fruits, some balsamic, and on the palate good acidity and wonderful balance. Add to this super pét nats, reds, among them a brilliant Cabernet Franc 2015, and you get the picture of a great producer.
Unknown to me was Glow Glow of Nahe. Pauline Baumberger runs it with her brother. Pauline showed various fresh, lovely uncomplicated whites from riesling and gelber muskateller, a relatively dark dorenfelder/regent, and more. Here we focus on the Spätburgunder 2022, that has all the young virtues of the white wines under a coloured cover. Made partly with carbonic maceration and short skin-contact it appears as a light rosé-ish wine with red fruits on the nose, and with a delicious natural acidity wrapped in a rounded body.
It seems to be no end to the list of interesting producers coming out of the ancient and historic wine country of Georgia. Andria’s Gvino I had never heard of, but now it’s not easy to forget. The winery is located in the Kakheti region, not far from the capital Tbilisi. They make their wines in the traditional and natural way, in qvevri, without additives and without filtration.
Winemaker George Wolski and his wife Tako showed me their main line and also the wines that come with the Château Khashmi label. There was a number of beautiful amber and red wines, of which I will only mention two. Their Mtsvane had lots of character. The colour was light amber, with aromas of mature citrus, orange peel and a touch of marzipan, and in the mouth it was rich and structured with a touch of raisins. George tells that the must spent five days with full skin-contact in qvevris. The Saperavi Khashmi 2020 comes from a 40 years old pre-phylloxera vineyard. Saperavi is fascinating grape that often has an impressively dark colour, but is still highly drinkable. This one is not among the darkest and has a blueish hue. I find it quite flowery with dark fruits (boysenberries), plums, some earthiness, and in the mouth it’s fresh and juicy, with some tannin, and overall it’s very appealing.
Coming from Tenuta l’Armonia, crossing the A4 motorway I arrive in the small settlement of Villaga after three quarter of an hour. We are now in the Colli Berici area. Siemàn has nine hectares, but only four is planted with vines, since it’s important to maintain the biodiversity of animals and plants. We went to the top of the hill, where we got a magnificent view of the slopes with the naturally ventilated vineyards and we could see as far as the Apennines. The ground is limestone, some clay, and where the tai rosso (aka tokai rosso, aka grenache) is one of the most prominent grapes.
Siemàn means “six hands” in the local dialect. I am welcomed by four of them, Daniele and Marco Filippini, who share the duties in wine. Siemàn also makes beer, from grapes! – and it’s the third brother Andrea who takes care of that part.
Daniele (left) and Marco Filippini
The owl in the logo must be explained by Italian terms: Owl is gufo in Italian, and gufare means to be lucky. -We all have other professional backgrounds, explains Daniele and Marco. So the people said, you can’t succeed. So the owl has become a symbol for being a bearer of luck, and so far it seems that it was a lucky choice of logo.
The brothers have a low-intervention attitude, and there is meticulous cleaning at all stages. They don’t use pesticides or any chemicals in the vineyards. The grapes are almost exclusively autochthonous. In the cellar, fermentations takes place spontaneously with native yeasts, and nothing is added (except for a small quantity of sulphites, when necessary). The wines are kept in barrels, concrete and steel, according to what the consider best to express grape variety and land.
There is a high proportion of limestone in the vineyards, compared to the volcanic of the north side of the main road. There are two illnesses in the vineyards that need to be watched, oïdium and downy mildew. Oïdium is treated with sulphur. When it smells of mushroom you cut it off and throw it away. Mildew is normally treated with copper (mixed with water and sprayed onto the leaves). When the leaf looks as if it has oil on it, this part is burnt off. It is important to say though, that the amounts of both copper and sulphur are kept much lower than the legal maximum. This because they use fungus as a natural treatment to minimize addition of copper.
The first harvest was in 2013 (without label). –Angiolino Maule helped us in the beginning, say the brothers. (Read about his estate and wines here and in the article about Gambellara.) 2014, a very rainy year, was the first vintage on sale. The plantings are young also, only 4-6 years old. But all the wines have something to them. They are luscious, tasty and with a mineral character. And they will only get better in the coming vintages. -We are improving every year, says Daniele. And it’s easy to believe.
Camaleonte 2017 is a pét nat with second fermentation in bottle, from the grape varieties tai rosso, garganega and incrocio manzoni, the two latter (the white grapes) with two days skin-contact. The colour is deep yellow; on the nose some bread and citrus notes. an easy-drinking wine. In 2017 there were hailstorms that caused a 30% loss of grapes, says Daniele.
For the white and red wines, half is fermented in concrete, half in wood, then put together in stainless steel before bottling. Occhio al Bianco 2017, a still wine from that vintage -grapes garganega, tai bianco, and in some vintages incrocio manzoni- had shorter skin-contact and was subsequently lighter yellow, and also somewhat cloudy; white flowers and herbs on the nose; tasty with a salty mineral character in the finish. not very different was the 2016 version of the same wine: tai bianco and garganega, golden colour; white flowers like chamomile, and a slight touch of peel after 3 days of skin-contact. Mosca Bianca 2016, from 90% garganega and 10% moscato, stayed 2 days with skins. It’s yellow golden, aromatic with flowers (the small amount of moscato shines through), and a round body. The 2017 had only 1 day skin-contact, and another difference was the grape composition, 50/50 garganega/moscato. This one had some peel character, but only a little. For me it was still more aromatic, in the moscato way. This wine come from a rented vineyard in Colli Euganei (to the east, in the Padova province), and has volcanic soil. It has 5,5-6 g/L acidity, like all the wines. All wines also come with less than 15 mg total SO2 (the current selection between 2-14).
Occhio al Rosso is their only red wine, from tai rosso. The 2017 was the lightest of the lot (bright ruby), and maybe not as expressive; as the others; nice and juicy with some fresh cherry fruit though. 2016 was a hot summer. This wine was the darkest of the three; red fruits, cherry, blackberry; and fruit all the way. In the 2015 no sulphur was added, and a slight hint of brett. To me it doesn’t matter at these low levels. Furthermore, it was very fruitdriven, with red berries in the front. The colour was light cherry, and the appearance clear too.
Both beers are in a sour ale style. Le Bucce is spontaneously fermented with yeasts of grapes (tai rosso, red grapes). The other is the Incocio, from the white grape incrocio manzoni. The grapes are the main reason for the difference in colour.
I am in Veneto. Yesterday I had a wonderful day in Gambellara, Vicenza province, which I will come back to.
This week’s wine is from the most important producer in that area. Well, Zonin is a big player indeed. But for an organic, down to earth approach Angiolino Maule has taught and inspired other growers that are just beginning. He also created the VinNatur organization and runs the Villa Favorita fair that brings together producers of the same sort from Italy and abroad.
Francesco Maule in front of a Masieri barrel
Gambellara is mainly white wine country, with volcanic soil. But there are some splendid reds made too.
There is also a white Masieri, but here we concentrate on the red version. It’s made mainly from merlot, some tai rosso (tocai/cannoneau/grenache), and around 5% is cabernet sauvignon, all fermented with indigenous yeasts in steel tanks.
The vineyards are young, and the cultivation is Guyot. The fermentation is spontaneous with indigenous yeasts, with a 13 days maceration. Minimum sulphur, no filtration.
Masieri Rosso 2017 (Angiolino Maule – La Biancara)
Dark cherry, violet hints. Aroma of cherry and blackberry, herbs, spices. Lightly structured, luscious and delicate, fruit all the way. Just lovely! (2017 is 13,5% alc.)
